Farms recalling eggs share suppliers, other ties

Wright County Egg operates this facility on Highway 69 near Galt, Iowa. After an outbreak of salmonella in several states, investigators traced the problem to Wright County Egg, leading to a recall of 380 million eggs. (AP Photo/Nirmalnedu Majumdar) more >

By Mary Clare Jalonick -
Associated Press -
Sunday, August 22, 2010

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Iowa farms that recalled more than a half-billion eggs linked to as many as 1,300 cases of salmonella poisoning share suppliers of chickens and feed as well as ties to an Iowa business routinely cited for violating state and federal law.

The number of illnesses, which can be life-threatening, especially to those with weakened immune systems, is expected to increase. The most common symptoms are diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever eight to 72 hours of eating a contaminated product.

The company Quality Egg supplies young chickens and feed to both Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms. The two share other suppliers, said Jewanna Porter, a spokeswoman for the egg industry, but she did not name them.

The egg industry has consolidated over recent years, placing fewer, larger businesses in control over much of the nation’s egg supply to consumers.

The salmonella outbreak has raised questions about federal inspections of egg farms. The FDA oversees inspections of shell eggs, while the Agriculture Department is in charge of inspecting other egg products.

William D. Marler, a Seattle attorney for a person who filed suit alleging illness from tainted eggs in a salad at a restaurant in Kenosha, Wis., said Sunday his firm has been retained by two dozen families and was representing a woman who was hospitalized in California.

“The history of ignoring the law makes the sickening of 1,300 and the forced recall of 550 million eggs shockingly understandable,” Mr. Marler said in an e-mail to the Associated Press. “You have to wonder where the USDA and FDA inspectors were.”

Mr. DeCoster is no stranger to controversy in his food and farm operations:

• In 1994, Iowa authorities assessed at least four separate penalties against DeCoster Farms for environmental violations, many of them involving hog waste.

• In 1997, DeCoster Egg Farms agreed to pay $2 million in fines to settle citations brought in 1996 for health and safety violations at DeCoster’s farm in Turner, Maine. The nation’s labor secretary at the time, Robert Reich, said conditions were “as dangerous and oppressive as any sweatshop.” Mr. Reich’s successor, Alexis Herman, called the state of the farms “simply atrocious,” citing unguarded machinery, electrical hazards, exposure to harmful bacteria and other unsanitary conditions.

• In 2000, Iowa designated Mr. DeCoster a “habitual violator” of environmental regulations for problems that included hog manure runoff into waterways. The label made him subject to increased penalties and prohibited him from building new farms.

• In 2002, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced a more than $1.5 million settlement of an employment discrimination lawsuit against DeCoster Farms on behalf of Mexican women who reported they were subjected to sexual harassment, including rape, abuse and retaliation by some supervisory workers at Mr. DeCoster’s Wright County plants.

• In 2007, 51 workers were arrested during an immigration raid at six DeCoster egg farms. His farms were the subject of at least three previous raids.